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Good God
“‘Is he – quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”…’Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver; ‘don’t you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.’” 1. That’s the issue this morning. What is the nature of God’s goodness? What do we mean when we say – sometimes glibly – God is good all the time and all the time God is good? Do we mean He is safe or do we mean a kind of terrible goodness as well? Do we mean something we define and control as “good” or is the…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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An Open Letter to Books & Culture
When I read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s post last week about the funding crisis at Books & Culture I had two immediate and opposite reactions. First was the saying I keep on the wall over my desk “When The Horse Is Dead Dismount.” Second was “Too Good To Fail.” I’ve bounced back and forth between them all weekend. It’s not quite like the tension of conflicting opinions about whether or not to bomb Syria but in my mind it is an important moment. While I might agree in part with Gregory Wolfe’s analysis that “the religious culture of North America is playing a role in the current financial challenges faced by…
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An Open Letter to Books & Culture
When I read Sarah Pulliam Bailey’s post last week about the funding crisis at Books & Culture I had two immediate and opposite reactions. First was the saying I keep on the wall over my desk “When The Horse Is Dead Dismount.” Second was “Too Good To Fail.” I’ve bounced back and forth between them all weekend. It’s not quite like the tension of conflicting opinions about whether or not to bomb Syria but in my mind it is an important moment. While I might agree in part with Gregory Wolfe’s analysis that “the religious culture of North America is playing a role in the current financial challenges faced by…
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The Case For God
I am not starting with “proof” of God. I don’t believe you can prove God to someone who is simply unwilling to believe. For whatever reasons, there are people who resist believing and there is not enough evidence in the world (or outside the world) to convince them. The Scripture calls them fools in Psalm 14:1-3: The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. In Psalm 10:2-5 David says of the fool: In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts about the…
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Jacob Wrestles With God
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Gothic Giving
I wrote last year on the transition from Gothic architecture to Baroque and how that change reflected a larger and more theological shift in society. Gothic was focused on the hereafter and Baroque was shaped by the desire to make this life better instead of thinking only of the hereafter. “So the emphasis was not spires ‘reaching toward heaven’ and the ‘ordered nature of structure’ but light color ” texture and art intended to draw people in – a kind of celebration of”. It was not change in a vacuum or an innovation for the sake of innovation. It was an alteration in worldview. In the same way, you can follow the trends…
